Creating an electrifying freak in WWE 2K15

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In Now Playing PC Gamer writers talk about the game currently dominating their spare time. Today, Ben tries to win the crowds with his monstrosity in WWE 2K15.

Making his way to the ring, standing 5ft 6 inches tall, weighing 425 pounds, and hailing from Uganda...The Good Wrestler! [Deafening boos]. My first custom character clearly isn’t wowing them, so it’s time to duck back behind the curtain and revise my gimmick. These people want spectacle, and they’re going to get it.

While 2K15 axes several features from its vast creative suite, its create-asuperstar mode is as strong as ever and this is where The Good Wrestler is reborn. First, pick the proportions. I like the idea of a super heavyweight dwarf so I keep his turnip figure, resisting the temptation to turn him bright purple because that would be ridiculous.

On to the wardrobe. Too many cooks spoil the broth, but I’m not making broth here, I’m making the most electrifying freak in sports entertainment. He’ll need leather pants, obviously, and black biker gloves to contrast with his pasty white skin, and in homage to his Canadian upbringing, two tasteful maple leaf tattoos. And for that wow factor, thigh-based arrows pointing to his crotch. He’s a patchwork of clashing styles, a designed-by-committee monstrosity, if that committee was different portions of my faulty brain.

I fine-tune his entrance choreography for maximum impact. Starting with the ramp animation which, in this case, involves pretending to speak on the phone like he’s finalising a business deal and the 30,000 people in the audience are somehow inconveniencing him. The lack of WWE CEO Vince McMahon’s ungainly strut, like Pinocchio with 50% muscle mass, forces me to rip off Ultimate Warrior’s mad ring sprint. As my guy rushes past the camera you can see the word ‘Hi’ written defiantly on his back.

I’ve got a trick up my sleeve if the crowd can resist a curled moustache and kneehigh gym socks, and it involves multiple loud explosions. I order the lights to turn a sickly green as my guy emerges, and time multicoloured pyro to trigger during his descent. While The Good Wrestler does his thing, I spot some crowd signs hand-picked by yours truly. They all read ‘Oooh, feisty!’ as I believe it encapsulates my character quite well.

Approaching the ring, TGW abruptly slows to a saunter and climbs the turnbuckle to perform a move that’ll blow everyone’s minds: the kiss-blow. But disaster strikes! Poor planning results in a white-hot pillar of fire exploding out of the corner while my wrestler poses on it seductively. The crowd boos loudly.